Lichens 'cause you like'em, and ducks because they have been a big subject in recent days. Here, the ducks were just moatin' and floatin'. It's raining today in Saint-Aignan, as it has been doing for a week or more now. We're supposed to have frequent rain showers for another week. I don't know when we'll ever get the vegetable garden planted.
P.S. I just went out in my waterproof gardening shoes and walked across the garden plot, which needs another tilling. It was like walking in quicksand. I sank down an inch or two wherever I stepped. It's going to take some time to dry out enough to be workable.
Wish we could trade some of your wet days for our dry ones.
ReplyDeleteI wish we could too. Our heavy, mostly clay soil will be impossible to work or plant in for a while. We have quite a few seedlings that we need to get planted in the ground...
DeleteI remember rainy months of May in Paris!
ReplyDeleteAre photos #4, 5, 6 portraits of members of the Le Veneur family that the fairy Mélusine transformed in ducks? Remember the similar story about the chateau de Pirou?
I love the third photo.
DeleteNotre nouvelle voisine s'appelle Mélusine. Il faudra qu'on fasse gaffe...
DeleteHere's what Wikipedia says about the Pirou legend:
DeleteA famous legend of Normandy originates in the castle at Pirou. Besieged by the Vikings, the Lord of Pirou and his family transformed themselves into geese, using an old wizard's book, in order to escape during the assault. When the geese returned, they tried to read the reverse spell to recover their human shapes, they realized that the wizard's book had been burnt with the castle, set on fire by the Vikings. This is why wild geese stop in the Cotentin each year in March, during their annual migration.
Walt and I visited the Tour Mélusine in Vouvant (Vendée) a few years ago. I knew about her from a 19th century poem by Gérard de Nerval. If I remember correctly, Nerval had a lobster as a pet and walked it around Paris on a leash. Another legend?
DeleteI don't think a lobster would live very long out of water. That probably was another of Mélusines's tricks. You'd better be on your guard. Don't cross her!
DeleteThe streets of Paris are wet and cold enough that a lobster might feel right at home.
DeleteTo people interested in languages, especially about learning a second language, memory and what you learn without even knowing it. When I wrote the above comment the expression "don't cross her" came to me right away! I don't know where it came from and I had to check it before publishing. Interesting, no?
ReplyDeleteNice pictures today, especially the view through the stone oval, balustrade.
ReplyDelete